courseis a guidebook to republican gov-
ernment, holding up the early Romans as
an ideal to be followed by his Italian con-
temporaries and all others to follow. He
most admired the balanced, three-part na-
ture of the early Roman government, di-
vided as it was into rulers, aristocrats, and
common citizens. Two centuries later this
opinion would be reflected in the United
States Constitution.
SEEALSO: Borgia, Cesare; Medici, Cosimo
de’
Magellan, Ferdinand ........................
(1480–1521)
A Portuguese explorer whose ill-fated ex-
pedition, sponsored by the king of Spain,
was the first to circle the globe. Born in
Saborosa, Portugal, he was the son of the
town’s mayor, who sent him to be edu-
cated at the court of the king of Portugal.
Magellan studied navigation and as-
tronomy at a time when nautical explora-
tion was opening up new continents for
Portuguese captains. A key event in this
history was the signing of the Treaty of
Tordesillas by Spain and Portugal in 1494.
The two kingdoms divided the globe be-
tween them: lands west of a meridian
drawn about 1,500 miles (2,414km) west
of the Cape Verde Islands were the prop-
erty of Spain, to explore and colonize, and
lands to the east were Portuguese. The
treaty shaped the history of exploration
over the next generation as well as
Magellan’s career.
Magellan first went to sea in 1505,
when he accompanied the Portuguese gov-
ernor Francisco de Almeida to his post in
India. He became a captain in 1510 but
was relieved of his rank in the next year as
punishment for sailing into the East Indies
without formal permission. He returned
to Portugal in 1512. In the next year he
traveled with a Spanish army to Morocco,
where he was severely wounded in the
Battle of Azamor. Accused by his com-
mander of insubordination in Africa, he
fell out of favor with King Manuel I, who
refused him any further commissions. As a
result, Magellan resigned his commission
and offered his services to the king of
Spain.
Magellan had come to believe that the
Spice Islands might be within the Portu-
guese domain according to the Treaty of
Tordesillas. He was determined to find a
westward-sailing route to the Spice Islands
of East Asia, which promised fabulous
wealth to any individual or company that
could find easier access to them. The Span-
ish monarchs, realizing that the voyages of
Columbus had not reached Asia, needed
to forge a new westward route in order to
avoid the Portuguese who, after the pio-
neering voyages of Vasco da Gama, had
established well-defended trading stations
in India and the Spice Islands.
King Charles V agreed to sponsor Ma-
gellan, who assembled a fleet of five ships
and set out in September 1519. The ships
reached the coast of Brazil in December,
then sailed south in search of the route
that would lead them to the Pacific Ocean.
Fearing that Magellan was leading them
on a futile mission, several of his officers
mutinied. The uprising was put down and
Magellan had two of his captains executed
and two others marooned. One of his ships
was wrecked in a storm, and another
would abandon the fleet. In August 1520,
Magellan found a long and narrow chan-
nel across the southern tip of South
America that now is known as the Strait
of Magellan.
The three remaining ships made the
crossing of the Pacific Ocean, reaching the
island of Guam on March 6, 1521, and
soon thereafter the Philippine Islands.Magellan, Ferdinand